Jimmy Orrante

Jimmy Orrante is a recent recipient of a 2005-06 Princess Grace Award for choreography, one of the world’s highest arts honors. Now in his eleventh season with BalletMet, the Los Angeles native attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Performing Arts under Don Hewitt and graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts. He has attended the International Summer Workshop in Budapest, Hungary; studied modern dance in London; danced with Memphis Ballet and Nevada Dance Theatre; and taught at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan’s Manistee National Forest. A past recipient of the Violetta Boft Memorial Award, Mr. Orrante has performed as a guest artist with Dance Kaleidoscope in Los Angeles and Northern Ballet Theatre in England. He and his wife, dancer Sonia Welker, have a young son, Isaac.